We don’t need your stinkin’ checks and balances
June 10, 2007
Not only is a democratic people led by its own taste to centralize its government, but the passions of all men by whom it is governed constantly urge it in the same direction. It may easily be foreseen that almost all the able and ambititious members of a democratic community will labor unceasingly to extend the powers of government, because they all hope at some time or other to wield those powers themselves. It would be a waste of time to attempt to prove to them that extreme centralization may be injurious to the state, since they are centralizing it for their own benefit. Among the public men of democracies, there are hardlly any but men of great disinterestedness or extreme mediocrity who seek to oppose the centralization of government; the former are scarce, the later powerless.
~~Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1831)
“You can either go back and try and make federalism work with sovereign state governments taking larger responsibility, or you can move, as I believe we will, to a national framework, with states increasingly becoming service deliverers working more as partners to federal or national objectives.”
~~Peter Costello, ABC Radio interview 2006
“If we were starting Australia all over again, I wouldn’t support having the existing state structure. I would actually support having a national government, and perhaps a series of regional governments having the power of, say, the Brisbane City Council (Australia’s most powerful local government). But we’re not starting Australia all over again, and the idea of abolishing state governments is unrealistic.”
~~John Howard. 2007
Update
Now, I am a Federalist myself. I believe, as I am sure most of you do, that in the division of power, in the demarcation of powers between a Central Government and the State governments, there resides one of the true protections of individual freedom.
MCB, excellent quote by Alexis De Tocqueville above. I may have to borrow that. You’ve quoted Costello and Howard above. I believe that our alternatives are far worse. Look at Leftist Helen Clark in NZ. She has created an unmitigated disaster. They may not be perfect, but you wait and see what will happen if Julia Gillard gets her ice cold hands anywhere near the power tools of this country.
Miss Dee,
“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.(Psalm 146:3, KJV)”.
I’m afraid that I must disagree. The problem is not who’s hands are on the lever. Its that the lever exists at all and that the lever was made by the Liberals.
The present Coalition goverment has done more centralising than any government since Whitlam.
Most Conservatives, bar a few honourable mentions such as former Nationals’ Senator John Stone, have sat back and said nothing while more and more power is centralized in the Federal Government – e.g water, industrial relations etc. And it still isn’t enough. There has been talk about centralizing Health, the Ports, Education etc. all from Liberal ministers – Abbot, Costello, Howard, Bishop and Turnbull.
That isn’t counting the frankly deluded disrespectful and Radical claims about re-writing the Constitution.
The Federal Coalition has abandoned the basic Conservative principle of State’s rights and limiting the power of Government. Those Conservatives who have said nothing while this Centralization has occured are going to find out how short-sighted and foolish they have been – when Labor eventually gets in. And those Conservatives will have themselves to blame when for example Labor’s Industrial Relations policies are enforced Nation-wide.
I would like to vote for a party that believes in Christian morality, State’s rights, the Monarchy, limiting the size and the power of federal government, and reforming Multiculturalism, Immigration and Citizenship requirements. And barring some worthless lipservice to the last three matters, there is no federal party like this, especially not the Liberals.
Here is another apposite quote from Lord Acton:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: …..There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it”.
MCB, you may be right about the centralization that you’re seeing right now, but you might also notice that this is a global trend. I believe that the principles of Marxism were tried out in two or three places; the U.S.S.R. and China being the two major ones. Once these experiments were in full swing, it was possible to build on what was observed by that, it was time to try a reworked Marxism on a western nation. Enter Sweden. The experiment in Sweden has run full circle and now it’s time to enact it on a grander scale in the E.U. All this time, the seeds of cultural Marxism have been sown in the educational and political institutions of the western world. This is coming into its own now. We think we have a Conservative government but this government is constrained by the bonds of cultural Marxism prevalent in our society. The fact that John Howard is always copping a bashing in the MSM shows me that he is trying to swim against the flow. The MSM loves Rudd and Gillard because they are their own. This new mutation of Marxism is going to be more virulent and vicious than what we’ve seen before and it fits far better with the ALP socialist agenda than with the Liberal party’s. Marxism is all about centralized government and the secularism of society. The whole system is based on atheism. Don’t be deceived by the so-called ‘Christian Left’, MCB, nor by Rudd’s claims to be a Christian. If you look deeply into some of the things he says, it’s anathema to a real person of faith. I’m not saying JH is perfect, but at least he backs moral issues dear to my heart such as anti-abortion and same sex marriage and all the other nefarious practices, evil to the core, that the Left is well-known for supporting. When it boils down to it, the moral issues are what are key. All governments today are heading towards centralization. If you believe the Bible, we are heading towards a one-world government, and I believe it’s right at the door, no matter what government we have. So I vote for the government which, at least, makes some kind of a show of supporting my moral universe.
[...] while back, I noticed a nice short post from Aussie blogger The Mild Colonial Boy quoting De Tocqueville: “It may easily be foreseen [...]
What about the USSR?